The Walsall Advertiser’s fight to save two fire stations from closure is hotting up with the launch of a special phone poll.

Proposals by West Midlands Fire Service could see Aldridge and Bloxwich fire stations being closed and replaced with a new £3.2m community fire station.

The Advertiser is calling instead for the money to be used to rebuild the two existing stations, and has launched the Closure Costs Lives campaign, which it hopes will send the proposals up in smoke.

Now readers are being given the chance to voice their opinions and say whether the two fire stations should be closed in favour of a single new community fire station or whether the two stations should be saved.

A site for the new station has not yet been decided but it is feared that response times would increase and lives could be put at risk.

The newspaper is distributing petitions opposing the plans and has been inundated with letters from concerned readers worried about the closure of Aldridge and Bloxwich fire stations.

Reporter Ian Edmunds said: “This time last year the Fire Brigade Union campaigned to fight the closures and held several meetings where everyone was against the closures.

“This strength of public opinion appears to have been ignored.

“We feel that both the existing stations are adequate and that if the closures go ahead then it could cost lives.”

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